


Thoughts of Flight

by sleepscribbling



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Crossover, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-30
Updated: 2010-10-30
Packaged: 2017-10-14 09:21:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/147766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepscribbling/pseuds/sleepscribbling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Harry Potter</i> AU, where Amy and Rory are Luna and Neville. (At least in terms of plot; character details vary slightly, and they’re in different houses.) On the way to the Ministry of Magic to perform a rescue mission, they have an important conversation…</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thoughts of Flight

Written for Challenge #05 at [](http://community.livejournal.com/she_is_to_me/profile)[**she_is_to_me**](http://community.livejournal.com/she_is_to_me/).

The sun sank low in the sky, casting long shadows over Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Four students hurried across the grounds, following Harry and Hermione and Umbridge. As they made their way through the Forbidden Forest, Rory and Amy gradually fell behind Ron and Ginny.

“How’s your leg doing?” Rory asked, remembering the hex Malfoy had cast that sent her spinning to the floor.

“It’ll be all right,” said Amy, “just a few drops of Saturnyne essence when we get back to the castle, and the bruises should all be gone in a day or so.”

Rory smiled. After another minute walking through the darkening forest, he asked, “Amy, are you frightened?”

“No,” she said, “we’re only walking through the Forbidden Forest at twilight, without a path, trying to find Harry so we can help him go to the Ministry and save the escaped convict Sirius Black. Why would I be scared?”

He laughed, a little nervously. “You know, you’re the reason I joined Dumbledore’s Army.”

“Really?”

“I mean, I knew Harry from a few of my classes, and Hermione’s always been really nice to me in Charms and Herbology, so I listened when she told us… But, yeah, a lot of why I kept coming was because I wanted to see you more often. I wanted to be in a club with you, and actually being good at defense magic was sort of a bonus.”

“That’s very sweet, Rory,” Amy said softly. “I’m glad you value our friendship so much.” She stepped over a thick, knotted tree root that jutted into the path, and Rory noticed, careful not to stumble on it himself.

“I guess I also wanted to prove myself at something,” Rory said. Being good with plants and wanting to be a Healer wasn’t flashy, not like the protective spells and dueling spells they learned in the D.A. He could impress her with Defense against the Dark Arts in a way that Herbology couldn’t, he’d thought. He hadn’t expected anything like that evening.

“Yeah, Harry’s great like that,” Amy said. “I suppose he sort of does it to everybody. He made us all want to prove ourselves, to be better than we were.”

It was dangerous, Rory knew, but so was allowing You-Know-Who to gain power. “And now I suppose it’ll pay off...”

“The D.A. was brilliant, wasn’t it?” Amy said. “Made me feel like I had lots of friends. And besides, I always thought the Raggedy Doctor would approve.”

Rory would’ve rolled his eyes, but by now he was used to Amy’s Raggedy Doctor. Fortunately, the constant mentions had mostly subsided since the past year, but he was very familiar with how important the Doctor was to Amy’s life, even if to the rest of the world he was just her imaginary friend. He had been the first one to open her world to magic, back when she was seven years old and still lived with her parents and not her Uncle Xenophilius. And yes, the Doctor had vanished mysteriously after that, but wizards could do that all the time, and no one thought it strange. She had gotten a few of her friends in the village to play Raggedy Doctor with her, and that had persisted through her first year at Hogwarts, which was another reason why people picked on her, she supposed. She’d never really minded.

“Yeah, Amy, he probably would. It’s exactly the sort of thing the Doctor would do. Somewhere out there, he’s probably real proud of you.”

In the fading light of sunset, Rory could just make out Amy’s broad smile. Her ginger hair looked like it was glowing, more so than Ron’s and Ginny’s, a brilliant Gryffindor red.

Rory reached down to the sleeve of Amy’s robes, and they held hands all the rest of the way through the woods.

~

Rory had never thought he would feel particularly good about seeing his granddad die, but he was happy he could see the thestrals nonetheless.

He was still a bit awkward mounting the winged creature, as he’d never really ridden horses before, but watching Ron and Ginny and Hermione he couldn’t imagine how much easier it was since he could actually tell what he was getting on. Harry was perched tensely on his thestral, and Amy somehow made it all look easy and glamorous. Of course, Amy made most things look glamorous, he thought.

Amy could see the thestrals, but she couldn’t remember having seen anyone die. Her uncle had said that it was probably her grandmother – but Amy had only gone to her funeral, she hadn’t even known she was so sick until they got the death notice from St. Mungo’s. In any event, she was glad she could see them – they did seem like lovely creatures.

When the thestrals took off with a whoosh towards the Ministry, the rush of air and sheer speed of flight were incredible. Rory had never been much good on a broom, but this was much more intense than riding on a broomstick had ever felt.

“This is amazing!” Rory shouted to her.

“I know,” she called back. She’d never imagined how it would feel to fly on a thestral before, and she’d never flown through the air in the Raggedy Doctor’s blue box before either, but now she guessed they felt similar.

“Never dreamed I’d be skipping out on school to storm the Ministry! Imagine if Gran could see me now...”

“I wouldn’t talk,” Amy shouted in reply. “We might scare the thestrals!” And all of them kept silent for the rest of the ride, concentrating on their mission.

“Good luck!” Rory shouted to all of them as they came over the part of Central London where the Ministry was located. Ten seconds later, the thestrals dived, and all Rory’s breath was sucked out of him as they arrived.

~

When they left the Department of Mysteries, all six of the D.A. members were considerably the worse for wear. Rory’s nose was still swollen, his face was still caked in blood, and his wand lay in his pocket, snapped in two and useless. Amy had come out perhaps the least scarred of all of them, although she had been hit by a few curses in the Planets Room, her left leg still ached, and she had seen things that night that had been difficult even for her to believe. She and the others had watched in awe as Dumbledore dueled Voldemort – the Ministry atrium coming apart from the force of their spells – they had discovered the bizarre wonders of the Department of Mysteries, and they had darted from room to room battling dark wizards.

When they returned to Hogwarts, Rory thought, it would feel so strange and foreign. He knew how Harry, Ron, and Hermione must have felt at the end of their first year, after saving the Philosopher’s Stone from Voldemort; there was a sense that school was suddenly profoundly unimportant compared to what else was out in the world.

He wasn’t plain old Rory Williams, clumsy and a bit useless, anymore: He was a boy who’d stormed the Ministry of Magic and helped defeat Death Eaters.

He had gone on a rescue mission with Harry Potter, and Hermione and Ron and Ginny and Amy. Especially Amy, she was the reason he’d ended up in Umbridge’s office all those hours ago in the first place, and he was very relieved she’d come along too. He was standing there with her, in a small antechamber down a corridor from the main atrium, going back over the night in mutual relief that it was over for now. A tall Auror named Kingsley Shacklebolt had said they could all use the floo network’s fireplaces to get back to Hogwarts, in half an hour when they were sure that they didn’t need them for the Aurors or other Ministry workers anymore. Amy had suggested they sneak away and take the thestrals back to school, but it was nearly dawn, and Rory thought they’d had rather enough adventure for the night.

“I think the Raggedy Doctor would be happy for both of us,” Amy said airily.

“Well, happy for you especially. After all, I did go and smash the prophecy…”

“Only because a Death Eater tore your jacket; it could’ve happened to any of us.” Amy shook her head. “Besides, Voldemort wanted the prophecy very badly, and you made sure he’ll never get it. The Doctor would like that.”

“Thanks, Amy.”

“And you may not be a Gryffindor,” Amy said, “but tonight you were very brave, Rory.” Then he kissed her, and the way she kissed back convinced him, more than the discord at the Ministry and the upcoming war, that everything had changed.


End file.
